


The Vital Spark

by EmmaSpencer



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: AU, Discoveries, Falling In Love, Fluff, Greg is a bit not good, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mycroft always, Secrets, Supernatural Elements, Trick or Treating, True Love, a really happy fluffy ending, always disappears, but things turn out nicely, it's magic so doesn't really matter, like he stepped out of a ghost story, meeting year after year, the night on the dead, wager, what just happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 21:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21143402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaSpencer/pseuds/EmmaSpencer
Summary: "It is believed that on the last day of October the boundary between the realms of the living and dead became blurred — the dead returned as ghosts and they could walk amongst the living."Gregory Lestrade wasn't one for believing in such fairy tales, until one fateful Halloween night...





	The Vital Spark

Ghost: originally meant “vital spark” or “the seat of life or intelligence,” However the most common meaning today, “the soul or specter of a deceased person” a meaning based on the ancient folkloric notion that the spirit is separable from the body and can continue its existence after death.

*******

Greg tried not to chuckle loudly, he was hiding behind a tombstone watching as one of his mates got thrown out. It became kind of a custom to sneak into the cemetery and try to stay as long as it was possible without Mr. Growler catching them. Year after year they became better in sneaking around, but so as Mr. Growler.

“This way.” he heard a whisper behind him. Greg turned and in the moonlight saw a pale lean young man wearing a three piece suit. He looked like he just stepped out of a ghost story. “Quickly!” he waved. Greg walked towards him expecting him to disappear. “In here.”

“What?” Greg hesitated.

“Do you wish to win the wager?”

“How do you know about it?” Greg entered the crypt behind him.

“You talked loud enough to wake the dead.” he pulled the door in after them.

“I’m Greg.” he held out his hand but the young man didn’t shake it.

“Mycroft, sorry, I’m…it’s just…”

“Germ phobia?”

“Touch unsettles me.” he hugged himself.

“Okay.” Greg looked around nervously. “We are in a crypt. I don’t want to be disrespectful…”

“You are playing in a cemetery.” he rolled his eyes.

“Fair point.”

“I wouldn’t mind, something happening around my bones at least.” he shrugged.

“Hmmm, yeah.” Greg looked around reading the carvings. “All died at the same time.”

“Daughter set fire to her drawings, the family didn’t make it out.”

“How do you know?”

“Lots of time in the Archives.”

“I thought that is just a collection of old, dusty, boring papers.”

“You can find interesting stories when you know how to look.” he sat to the table in the middle. “How long you need to stay?”

“Just to be the last.” he sat next to him. “You?”

“Quiet place this night…everyone is out…”

“Parties, trick or treaters.”

“Yes…those.” he mumbled.

“I used to love trick or treating…one day a year when I could get candy.”

“Never did so.”

“Maybe we could go together next year!”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Live around here? Never seen you.”

“Used to…You live here then.”

“Hmmmm.” Greg dangled his legs. “This is my last Halloween here though…I’m starting uni next year, moving far away. Not sure we’ll still get together for Halloween.”

“You won’t.”

“Okay.”

“Just…sorry.” he realised what he said. “Talking from experience. Had friends, went to university sooner than them and lost all of them. Then…” he trailed off.

“Then you are still coming back, hoping one year they will turn up?”

“Kind of.”

“At least we can meet.” Greg smiled at him.

“I’m sure you’ll have better things to do then spending your night in a cemetery.”

“Maybe not.” he smiled at him. The young man sitting next to him looked extraordinarily, he wouldn’t mind spending more nights with him.

“No wager!” he warned him a smile hiding in his eyes. Greg chuckled.

“Shall we say, three years?”

“What will the winner get?”

“Dinner?”

“Breakfast.”

“Brunch. I hate getting up early.”

“Midnight snack.”

“Yeah, that would be perfect!” Greg chuckled. They sat in silence for a while.

“So what will you study?” Mycroft broke the silence.

“Criminology.”

“Is that…a thing now?” Mycroft hesitated.

“Yeah.” Greg chuckled. “I want to be a detective, thought it could be helpful. You?”

“Law.”

“Will you be nice to me if we meet in court?” Greg leant closer with a big smile, batting eyelashes.

“I don’t think we’ll meet.”

“Who knows,” he shrugged. “You can’t tell the future.”

“I…no, of course not.”

“You think all the others are caught? Not that I mind staying here with you.”

“Maybe stay bit more…” he blushed. “Just to be safe.”

“Sure. Have you ever been caught?”

“No. He never looks in here.”

“Why?”

“Scared of the creature guarding the crypt.”

“What creature?” Greg frowned.

“Some bat like…creature. Nothing to be scared of to be honest, it is just stone after all.” he chuckled. “It is there to scare away thieves.”

“Haven’t noticed.” in truth, Greg had his eyes were on something else. “Anything worth stealing in here?” he looked around with disbelief in the grimy, empty crypt.

“Who knows what the coffins hide.”

“Never understood what’s the point in putting valuables there, they are dead, what will they do with it? I mean…the remaining family could use it.”

“No one was left.” Mycroft said gravely.

“Even the little girl?”

“She was institutionalized.”

“That makes sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense…never mind. You are probably not interested.” he hugged his pulled up legs.

“I am.” Greg turned looking at him with interest.

“She killed just a year before. As far as I know, the oldest tried to warn the family but no one believed him so she wasn’t removed from the house.” Mycroft sighed.

“Maybe the parents couldn’t believe that their angelic little girl could do such a thing.”

“Angelic.” Mycroft snorted.

“We couldn’t know.”

“I do know!” he snapped.

“Okay.” Greg put his hands up.”

“Found a diary; his. It was a read.” Mycroft mumbled.

“I can imagine.”

“How about your family?” Mycroft changed the subject. “Letting you roam the cemetery at night.”

“Mum left, dad doesn’t care if I’m around or not. At least I avoid his drunken rage.” he mumbled.

“Sorry about that.”

“I’m moving soon…the only thing keeping me going. I’m getting out of there as soon as I graduate and never coming back.”

“And he already broke our agreement.” Mycroft smiled at him.

“No, that is the exception! You live alone?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“Oxford. Moved away as soon as it was possible.”

“You don’t have anyone or…”

“Chose to be on my own. Had enough of people.”

“I know the feeling. Everyone tries to guilty trip you, make you look like the monster but they have no idea what you have to live through; that being lonely is way better than one more second with them.”

“I was always the one getting the blame,” Mycroft sighed. “I could do no good. If I achieved something it wasn’t something worth celebrating. It was a requirement. ”

“Are you doing better now?”

“Kind of, but it is lonely…”

“Not one to socialize?”

“I crave it but I…have difficulty with it.”

“You are doing all right now.”

“It is…different. I don’t mind talking to you.” he blushed.

“Me neither.” Greg chuckled equally red.

“Sun will be up in a few minutes. I’m sure you won the wager by now.”

“Is it?” Greg looked around, he didn’t realise how the nigh passed. “If they’ll believe me.”

“Better do.” Mycroft got up.

“We’ll see, not that I mind; it was nice talking to you.”

“I agree.” a blush appeared on his pale freckled face.

“Are you coming?” Greg walked to the door.

“Right behind you.” Mycroft whispered. Greg stepped out to the grey, foggy morning.

“Looks creepier than at night.” he turned back.

“Oh, just the statue.” he tried to calm his racing heart. “Mycroft? Are you here? You know, I don’t like being scared, so please don’t jump out of the fog.” he waited, listening intently. “Okay, see you in a year.”

** _Year 1_ **

“I promised.” Greg popped up from behind a tombstone.

“Gregory.” Mycroft smiled.

“You haven’t changed a bit!”

“You did…just a bit.” Mycroft turned red, Greg changed for the better during the year. They stood there just smiling at each other.

“So, what now?”

“We…could go for a walk. Or you and your friends…?” Mycroft mumbled nervously.

“As you said, it is over.” he sighed kicking the leaves. “I thought we were inseparable…”

“For once I’m not glad I was right.” Mycroft walked through the leaves not even disturbing them. “All things end.”

“You are saying not to be friends with you?”

“I’d love to be friends with you Gregory, but this...us,” he sighed. “Not going to work.”

“You can’t know.”

“Nothing ever changes, no one ever believes me.” he said bitterly.

“I don’t believe you because this will last.”

“What have I done to get stuck with an optimist.” Mycroft rolled his eyes dramatically.

“A pessimist; just my luck.” Greg chuckled.

“Very funny.”

“Thanks.” Greg bowed making Mycroft chuckled. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Not really. Why?”

“I’m a bit and hungry.” he stopped in front of a little café. “I didn’t have time for dinner, wanted to be here early.” he smiled at Mycroft.

“Might as well.” Mycroft hesitated by the door till Greg opened it for him. “Thanks.” he mumbled stepping in, looking around uncomfortably.

“Have you tried that pumpkin spiced coffee thing? Everyone talks about it…maybe…why not. Want one?”

“It sounds rather strange.” Mycroft stepped closer to Greg. “I think I’ll be fine, thank you.”

“Okay.” Greg scanned him hesitantly.

“I get a table.”

“Sure.” he nodded. Mycroft took the table in the darkest corner, scanning the café nervously. He caught his reflection in the ceiling mirrors, quickly looking away, not wanting to be reminded of the way he truly looked like. He was sure Gregory was crazy because no one in their right mind would want to spend time with him.

“I thought you ran off. Hiding here in the dark.” Greg sat to the table.

“I thought it was…”

“It’s perfectly fine Mycroft.” Greg smiled widely.

“All right.” he fiddled with his hands. “I just…we are…”

“Out in public, I know. Promise you have nothing to be scared of.”

“Yeah.” Mycroft mumbled, Greg just kept smiling at him.

“What is it Gregory?” Mycroft hugged himself.

“Nothing, just looking at your adorable face.”

“It’s not adorable.” Mycroft ran his fingers through his hair nervously.

“It is.” Greg chuckled.

“Could we talk about something proper?”

“Sure. Proper, what is that?”

“You moved then?” Mycroft didn’t look at him.

“Oh…I worked and put money aside so I could get a place. Dad took it all and…well drunk it away. I couch surfed for a few months and then thankfully got a room in the hall of residence.”

“How’s school?”

“Hard, but very interesting.”

“New friends?”

“Some. What about you? How’s school?”

“Oh…I have one more year then it is over.”

“Must be hard.”

“It’s not as hard as one would think.”

“Still no friends?”

“No.” Mycroft looked at his hands.

“No girl you have your eyes on?”

“Why do you ask?” he frowned looking up finally.

“Just talking about normal stuff.” Greg shrugged.

“Then what about you?”

“No one.”

“Same.” Mycroft sighed.

“Would you like to walk some more?” Greg finished his coffee.

“I’d love to.”

“I could show you what have changed.”

“Where you lived perhaps?”

“If you show me yours.”

“I…not much is left.”

“Mine isn’t that interesting either but let’s get it over with.” Greg got up.

“We don’t have to…”

“Wait!” Greg exclaimed. “I promised you we go trick or treating!”

“No! No need to…”

“You look like a vampire and…I’ll be your snack pack.” Greg picked up a napkin and wrote ‘Portable blood bank’ on it with ketchup. “Perfect.”

“We are too old for that.” Mycroft tried to detest.

“Never.” Greg chuckled and got up. “So? Are you coming Mycroft?” he reached for Mycroft’s hand but he pulled it away.

“Just a little bit.”

***

“This is where you lived?” Greg was munching on the candy they acquired.

“Yes.” they were sitting on the stone fence.

“It burned down.”

“You don’t say.” he sighed.

“Big family?”

“Mum, dad, a younger brother and sister. Has been the family mansion for decades.”

“Can we go inside?”

“I don’t think it is safe.”

“Scared of the ghosts?” Greg chuckled.

“No. Only of falling debris, weak structure…scared for you safety.”

“Maybe you are right. What caused it?”

“Electric fire.”

“All fine?”

“Yes.”

“The reason behind your interest in the story of the family?”

“Maybe.”

“It could be a wonderful haunted mansion, with the tombs and everything. There are truly people buried there?”

“No, it’s just an architectural joke.”

“Perfect haunted house. We could earn extra money, invent ghost stories…”

“It is dangerous to go in!” Mycroft warned Greg who jumped off the fence.

“I heard you the first time, just a sneak peak.”

“I’m not going.” Mycroft stated.

“You are scared.” Greg turned back.

“It is dark, we are too far from the town…what if something happens to you!”

“You are really scared!” Greg stepped closer. “Terrified…why?”

“Please.”

“Why are you so terrified? It’s just an old house…” Greg’s flashlight flickered and when the light came back Mycroft was nowhere to be found. “Mycroft! Mycroft!” he yelled. “We go back now, it’s okay. I’m sorry…truly. Where are you?” Greg started to walk back to town but there was no sign of Mycroft.

** _Year 2_ **

“You always disappear.” Greg greeted Mycroft who was sitting on a bench in front of the cemetery.

“You promised something and of course you broke it. Should have known.”

“Sorry.”

“You only thought of yourself, not listening to me.”

“You made me visit my old home!”

“Told you we don’t have to. Anyways you dragged me around like a spectacle!” he hissed.

“I thought it was fun. We got tons of candy, you seemed to enjoy it as well.”

“It’s not the point!” Mycroft yelled.

“Were you having fun or not?”

“I was but…”

“Then why are you holding it against me?”

“You wanted to go into a house that could collapse at any second. Why weren’t you listening to me!”

“Because I didn’t care if it falls on me or not!”

“Why are we arguing?” Mycroft sighed.

“Not sure.” Greg sat down too. “Missed you.”

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m not lying Mycroft. I’m not saying you were my first thought in the morning and the last in the evening but I did think of you.” which was a lie, Mycroft did crossed Greg’s mind daily.

“I missed you too to be honest.” Mycroft smiled softly.

“How’s work?”

“Work?” he frowned.

“You graduated, am I right?”

“Oh, yes. It is pretty much like being a secretary.”

“As I heard. Good firm?”

“It’s all right. How is school?”

“Intense.”

“I thought you won’t come this year, I waited and waited…”

“What time it is?”

“Three in the morning.”

“I got derailed, sorry.” Greg mumbled.

“Derailed?”

“Couple of my mates, it was just a few drinks, just a few…and I still managed to catch the last train.”

“I thought you forgot about me.” Mycroft tried not to sound bitter.

“No, no…I’d never miss seeing you. We could meet more often you know. Or talk at least…do you have a phone? I’ve just got one.”

“I…we agreed one night every year.”

“Don’t you want more? I’d love to spend every day with you. Wake up next to you, see your face every morning.” Greg slid closer to him. “Feel you…”

“Stop it!” Mycroft snapped. “You are drunk.” he stood up.

“Does it matter? I’m telling you the truth. I want you, I want more of you Mycroft.”

“You have no idea what you are talking about. None at all.”

“I do. I love you.”

“Shut up!” Mycroft covered his ears. “Leave me alone!” Mycroft’s back was pressed to a tree.

“My…”

“I want you to leave! Leave and never come back! Never…”

“Mycroft.”

“I beg of you Gregory.” he slid to the ground.

“Okay…” he stepped back hesitantly. “All right. Sorry My…I just…” he sighed. “I lied okay! I think of you first thing in the morning and when I go to bed. I have no one…I mean there are people around me. We talk, we laugh but I can’t call them friends, I can’t open up to them. I…you know I said I was couch surfing but I was lying again. I was living on the streets…”

“Why lie?”

“Because that is what I do. I had to lie about my bruises, why haven’t I gone on trips, where I lived…I lied to all my friends to keep them and lost them never the less. I lie to survive.”

“And still lost everything.”

“You don’t have to remind me of that. I try to juggle school and three different jobs to manage somehow. I wouldn’t mind the building collapsing on me. That would mean no more trouble, no more struggle. You were the only thing keeping me back from doing something. The thought of seeing you again kept me going…” Greg turned away hearing some noise, when he turned back Mycroft was gone.

“My? Please, I’m sorry okay? Don’t leave me…please you can’t leave me as well. Please.” he sobbed. “I don’t want to be alone.” he pleaded.

“Hey, what are you doing here!” a light shone on Greg. “It’s not a playground bloody kids!” Greg quickly fled the scene.

** _Year 3_ **

“Mycroft?” Greg stood in front of the crypt calling for him. “Are you here?” he tried the door which opened without trouble. “Mycroft?”

“I’m here.” he mumbled.

“Hey.” Greg sat to the table next to him. “Been a while.”

“What are you doing here?”

“There is something I want to talk about and then I leave.”

“You looked me up.” he whispered not looking at Greg.

“I did.” he put down the papers. “The Archives are actually fun.”

“They were.” Mycroft pulled up his legs, hugging them.

“Mycroft Holmes, died in 1865, October 17th.”

“My birthday actually.”

“Your little brother in your arms, you almost opened the window…”

“Almost.” he buried his face. “Almost isn’t good enough.”

“Mycroft,” he whispered sitting closer. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I told mother, I told father, I told uncle…everyone who would listen. They listened and then laughed at me. Got grounded for being disrespectful towards my perfect sister.”

“Sorry.” he wanted to place a hand on his shoulder, then pulled his hand back.

“Smoke made us pass out, didn’t feel a thing but I can still hear the screams of my brother and her laughter. That laugh.” he shivered.

“How is it that you are here but they are…not?”

“Oh, they are…just out by the mansion. Everyone out this night…as I said, lonely night.”

“Why you didn’t want to go closer.” Mycroft nodded. “My?”

“I know, you can see me.”

“I do but…”

“Remember when we went trick or treating and all the kids screamed seeing me? They see the real me…the burnt mess I became.”

“I don’t see that.” Greg stared into his eyes. “I only see the amazing, lonely, funny young man who’s been plaguing my dreams.” Mycroft said nothing. “Shall I leave now?”

“Don’t know.” 

“You are here every day?”

“No, just on this day.”

“I’ll come and see you every year, promise.”

“Why would you.” he sighed resting his head on his arms.

“Remember what I said last year.”

“You were drunk.”

“I meant it never the less. I love you My.”

“We’ve only met three times, you can’t be in love with me.”

“Well I still am. Turned away quiet a number of ladies and guys.”

“He is bragging.” Mycroft rolled his eyes.

“No, my friends thought me to be mental me waiting for a guy I only meet once a year. Hoping he’ll be here this year as well.”

“So you have friends now?”

“I started therapy…it helped.”

“And now what?”

“I’ll come back every year to see you.”

“That’s not a healthy relationship. You need someone real; children.”

“Wanted children?”

“Did, but it was impossible for me at that time. Expressing my feelings was a punishable offence.”

“Times have changed.”

“Heard of it. If I’d live in this era…it would be the same most likely.” he sighed.

“You’d have me and we’d have tons of ginger babies.”

“No…”

“As many as your freckles.” Greg leant closer making Mycroft chuckled. “We could manage, you with your posh law office, me with my humble police wage.”

“You planned everything, haven’t you?”

“Sleepless nights.” he chuckled. “I always wished for what I couldn’t have. A mother, a father who doesn’t abuse me, a young man who’s been dead for centuries.”

“It doesn’t hurt to dream.”

“I suppose. Would you like to go for a walk?”

“We could.”

“Meaning?”

“It is not a good idea. You should walk away from me.”

“I don’t want to. Shall we?” Greg jumped off the table offering his arm to him. Mycroft reached out without thinking and laced their arms.

“We shall.”

***

“My?” Greg whispered when a group of little kids ran past them, this time none of them screamed.

“I would make much better costumes.”

“I’m sure of that.”

“I might enjoy taking them out.”

“I’m sure we would.”

“I’m not sure if you remember but I mentioned that I don’t like being touched.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not true. I crave it more than anything…I’d love to run my hand through your hair…feel your skin, feel everything…” he trailed off. “I’d love that.” Greg stepped in front of him, cupping his face and kissing him without any warning.

“My, My…my idiot.” Greg chuckled when they parted. Mycroft stared at him with wide eyes. “We’ve been walking hand in hand for the past hour.”

“Have we?” Mycroft’s voice was weak.

“Yeah. I’ve just kissed you if you haven’t noticed.”

“Not really.” Greg chuckled and leant in for another kiss. They only broke it because of the kids who kept bumping into them.

“Felt it now?” he whispered trying to catch his breath.

“I think so.” Mycroft panted.

“What this means now?”

“I have no idea.” Mycroft slid his arms around Greg’s waist burying his face to his shoulder.

“Neither do I.” he chuckled. “Isn’t that splendid?”

** _Year seven_ **

“Come on love!” Greg sighed glancing at the clock.

“Just a second!”

“They will be really cranky if we don’t go now. You know them…all the excitement and the absence of the afternoon nap.”

“I know.” he mumbled. “But I want it to be perfect.”

“It is magnificent.” Greg kissed him. “Now get them dressed and I get the bags.”

“Of course you get the easy job.” Mycroft chuckled but went to fetch their twins. “May, Sherlock…come here you two. Time to go.” Mycroft was soon ambushed by their twins, chatting, running around excitedly. He had to try to get them dressed as they ran around the flat.

“I’m ready.” Greg came in.

“Of course you are.” Mycroft was out of breath. “What are you wearing? You said you took care of the costumes for us!”

“I’m wearing it. Don’t you remember?”

“Remember what? I don’t even remember where I put my glasses!”

“Here.” Greg chuckled pulling the glasses back to his eyes. “Hello adorable.”

“Hi walking food.” Mycroft chuckled slipping his arms around Greg’s waist. “Sherlock don’t you dare jumped off!” Mycroft pulled away before Greg could kiss him, hurrying to get their son off the chest of drawers. “You are not a real bat!”


End file.
